PDC World Darts Championship
Venue: Alexandra Palace, London Dates: 16 December-3 January
Coverage: Live on Sky Sports, reports and results on BBC Sport website

Wade was well below par against his Austrian opponent

World number two James Wade suffered a shock defeat in the second round of the PDC World Championship after losing 4-2 to Austrian qualifier Mensur Suljovic.

Wade struggled to find any sort of consistency and missed the treble 20 with many of his first darts.

Suljovic made the most of his chances to post the biggest win of his career.

But there were no problems for last year's beaten finalist Simon Whitlock, who easily beat Denis Ovens 4-0 at Alexandra Palace.

Although Wade took the opening set of his match, his game became more erratic and Suljovic was able to capitalise to take the next two sets.

His slow pace caused problems for Wade and the Austrian had chances to go 3-1 up but the under-pressure Wade hit double 10 to level the match at two sets apiece.

Wade struggled again in the fifth set and missed a crucial 127 checkout before the Austrian, who beat Michael van Gerwen in the opening round, held his nerve to land 74 and go 3-2 ahead.

The second seed made a bright start to the sixth set, taking the opening leg, but the Austrian roared back to take the next two legs only for Wade to take out 75 to stay in the match.

But it only delayed the inevitable as Suljovic held his nerve in the next leg, sealing the famous victory with double 20.

"I feel like never before in my life," he said afterwards. "I'm so pleased and over the moon. This is the best moment of my career. I don't have the words."

Whitlock, who is seeded to meet Phil Taylor in the semi-finals, had a checkout of 136 and was in ruthless form on the doubles as Ovens won just two legs.

"I started a bit slow but knew I was going to play well because over the last 10 days I've been putting a lot of time in on the board," he said.

"I've been working hard for this. We're all working hard and all want the same thing."

Whitlock next faces Dutchman Vincent van der Voort, who secured a last-16 berth for the first time in his career after a 4-2 win over Wayne Jones.

In the night's other game, Wes Newton hammered Kevin Painter's conqueror Brendan Dolan 4-0 and will next face Suljovic.

Earlier in the day, Mark Walsh beat Alan Tabern 4-3 in a thrilling duel that lasted almost two hours.

Tabern, who had trailed 2-0 and 3-2, fought back to give himself six darts to win the match but was unable to take his chance and was punished by Walsh, who will now meet Terry Jenkins.

Jenkins' path to a meeting with Walsh was relatively smooth as he beat Steve Brown 4-1.

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